Butterflies, Dinosaurs, Zebras....OH MY!!

Butterflies, Dinosaurs, Zebras....OH MY!!
(March 19, 2011)


We decided to take the kids on the first "vacation" of 2011 this weekend. Every night we read Jacob a bedtime book and a few nights ago a dinosaur book that usually Jacob hates suddenly was the "best thing since sliced bread". Maybe it was because Paul read the book, or maybe it was because Jacob is getting older but conversations about dinosaurs ended up being the main topics for the few days following that night.

Our life has become increasingly boring and monotonous so we decided that we would take the boys to the National History Museum in DC. We headed out early in the morning on Saturday, got a parking spot right in front of the museum and were there right at 10am as soon as the doors opened! Meeting us as we walked in was a HUGE Elephant! Also at this museum was a HUGE underwater exhibit with a full sized whale hanging from the ceiling, huge aquariums, an insect zoo with live bugs and tarantulas, life sized full dinosaur skeletons, a butterfly exhibit, and many many other things!

I can't decide what what was our favorite exhibit, but the dinosaurs and the butterflies are definitely up there! Andrew was a little scared of the larger animal skeletons and I can't blame him as some of the cutest animals in real life look scary when they are just bones! But Andrew loved the lions, giraffe, and his favorite animal right now the Zebra!

We will go back again this summer once the baby is born and pack a lunch to eat out on the lawn. It is free to go to the museum, but was over $30 to eat lunch there so we have learned our lesson on that one and will pack a nice lunch next time!

On the way out we got Jacob an "archeologist" toy where you get a hard block of plaster with plastic dinosaur bones in it that you can use a pick and brush to slowly pick away at the bones. We are slowly starting to work it out and will have our excavated fossils out soon!